Systems, including iPhone smartphones, frequently include many chips, from many different providers, that include one or more licensed ARM cores, in addition to those in the main (ARM-based) processor;[15] Chips for all common network related technologies: Bluetooth, WiFi and broadband[16] (and non-network related functions such as with Apple M7) in smartphones, in addition to corresponding equipments such as Bluetooth headsets,[17] up to newest 802.11acrouters[18] and provider's cellular LTE.[19]

ARM's main CPU competitors include Intel (Atom), Imagination Technologies (MIPS) and AMD (that will also sell 64-bit server processors[20]), and its GPU competitors include Imagination Technologies (PowerVR), Qualcomm (Adreno) and increasingly Nvidia and Intel. Qualcomm and Nvidia combine their GPUs with an ARM licensed CPU while Intel doesn't.

The acronym ARM, first used in 1983, originally stood for "Acorn RISC Machine", the processor from Acorn Computers, its first RISC processor used in the original Acorn Archimedes and one of the first RISC processors. However, when the company was incorporated in 1990, the acronym was changed to stand for "Advanced RISC Machines" in the company name "Advanced RISC Machines Ltd." Then, at the time of the IPO in 1998, the company name was changed to "ARM Holdings",[21] often just called ARM like the processors.

The company was founded in November 1990 as Advanced RISC Machines Ltd and structured as a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) and VLSI Technology.[22][23][24] The new company intended to further the development of the Acorn RISC Machine processor, which was originally used in the Acorn Archimedes and had been selected by Apple for their Newton project. Its first profitable year was 1993. The company's Silicon Valley and Tokyo offices were opened in 1994. In 1997, ARM invested in Palmchip Corporation to provide a system on chip platforms and to enter into the disk drive market.[25][26] In 1998 the Company changed its name from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd to ARM Ltd.[27] The Company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ in 1998.[28] Apple's shareholding had fallen to 14.8% by February 1999.[29]

Unlike most traditional microprocessor suppliers, such as Intel, Freescale (the former semiconductor division of Motorola) and Renesas (a former joint venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric),[48] ARM only creates and licenses its technology as intellectual property (IP), rather than manufacturing and selling its own physical CPUs, GPUs, SoCs or microcontrollers. This model is similar to fellow British design houses: ARC International, and Imagination Technologies who have similarly been designing and licensing GPUs, CPUs, and SoCs, along with supplying tooling and various design and support services to their licensees.

A characteristic feature of ARM processors is their low electric power consumption, which makes them particularly suitable for use in portable devices.[50] In fact, almost all modern mobile phones and personal digital assistants contain ARM CPUs, making them the most widely used 32-bit microprocessor family in the world. Today ARMs account for over 75% of all 32-bit embedded CPUs.[51]

ARM offers several microprocessor core designs that have been "publicly licensed" 830 times including 117 times for their newer "application processors" (non-microcontroller) used in such applications as smartphones and tablets.[57] Six of those companies have a licence for the their most powerful processor core, the 64-bitCortex-A57 (some including ARM's other 64-bit core the Cortex-A53) and four have a licence to their most powerful 32-bit core, the Cortex-A15.

Companies often license these designs from ARM to manufacture and integrate into their own System on chip (SoC) with other components such as GPUs (sometimes ARM's Mali) or radio basebands (for mobile phones).

In addition to licenses for their core designs, ARM offers an "architectural licence" for their instruction sets, allowing the licensees to design their own cores that implement one of those instruction sets. An ARM architectural licence is more costly than a regular ARM core licence,[59] and also requires the necessary engineering power to design a CPU based on the instruction set.

ARM-based CPU market share in 2010: over 95% in smartphone market; 10% in mobile computers; 35% in digital TVs and set-top boxes; however, ARM did not have any market share in servers and desktop PCs.[101]

As of 2014[update], over 50 billion chips with ARM cores inside have been produced, 10 billion of which were produced in 2013,.[102]

In the fourth quarter of 2010, 1.8 billion chips based on an ARM design were manufactured.[103]

With Microsoft's ARM-based Windows 8 OS, market research firm IHS predicted that in 2015 23% of all the PCs in the world will use ARM processors.[104]

In May 2012, Dell announced the Copper platform, a server based on Marvell’s ARM powered devices.[105] In October 2012, ARM announced the first set of early licensees of the 64-bit-capable Cortex-A57 processor.[65]

ARM's goal is by 2015 to have ARM-based processors in more than half of all tablets, mini-notebooks and other mobile PCs sold.[106]

At 2011 CES, Microsoft revealed that the Windows 8 operating system will run on ARM architecture platforms.[109] Following this, Microsoft demonstrated Internet Explorer 10. For around 30 seconds of the 90-minute talk, they mentioned that some of the demos were running on an ARM computer.[110] During Microsoft's presentation of Windows 8 on 1 June 2011, a handful of the company's hardware partners showed off tablets and notebooks running the OS, including ARM instead of x86 processors.[111]

Warren East was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ARM Holdings in October 2001. In the 2011 financial year, East received a total compensation of £1,187,500 from ARM, comprising a salary of £475,000 and a bonus of £712,500.[114][115] East said in March 2013 that he would retire from ARM in May, with president Simon Segars taking over as CEO.[116] In March 2014, former Rexam chairman Stuart Chambers succeeded John Buchanan as chairman. Chambers, a non-executive director of Tesco and former chief executive of Nippon Sheet Glass Group, had previously worked at Mars and Royal Dutch Shell.[117]

^Andrews, Jason (2005). "3 SoC Verification Topics for the ARM Architecture". Co-verification of hardware and software for ARM SoC design. Oxford, UK: Elsevier. p. 69. ISBN0-7506-7730-9. ARM started as a branch of Acorn Computer in Cambridge, England, with the formation of a joint venture between Acorn, Apple and VLSI Technology. A team of twelve employees produced the design of the first ARM microprocessor between 1983 and 1985.

^"NVIDIA Charts Its Own Path to ARMv8"(PDF). Tirias. August 11, 2014. p. 1. Retrieved 16 September 2014.: "NVIDIA announced back in 2011 that it had taken an architecture license for the 64-bit ARMv8 instruction set and was building a custom ARM core. The result is Project Denver. "

^"HDD Markets and Technologies". Retrieved 19 September 2013. As one of a few select companies to hold a full ARM architecture license, Marvell is uniquely positioned to leverage the pervasiveness of the ARM architecture.